Moko Hill, a-short-escape

Moko hill or Bukit Moko in Indonesian are increased in popularity these days. Located 1500 meters above the sea level, this hill located in Cimenyan, Bandung, West Java, considered to be the highest point in this city. This place presents you a 180 degrees view of Bandung.

As a person who spend almost everyday dealing with Jakarta traffic, Moko hill can be an alternative destination for vacation. It's located very close to downtown Bandung, and also easily accessible. All you have to do is find Padasuka street which is only 30 minutes away from Pasteur toll gate. Once you find Padasuka street, just follow the road directly to the hill about 20 minutes, then, voi-la, look at that view!

There are three main spot here. The hill, and the Star peak or Puncak Bintang, and the woods, pine woods to be exact. The hill are the first to welcome you with amazing landscape view of Bandung city. Feeling tired yet? There are many places to sit here where you can take a rest while enjoying the view. There is also a small shop where you can order food and beverages in affordable prices. Just to remind you, there is no retribution if you want to sit here and relax, except for the food and parking, which make this place become favorite for teenagers to hang-out.

Second place to visit is of course the Star peak. to get here you need to croos a pine woods, but I'll explain it later. This peak also offer a great view from heights. Different fom the hill, there is much more greenery to see this time.

You can take wide or even panoramic photo with ease this time. There is even a huge star-shaped object (related to this place name, obviously) where a lot of visitor take pictures with. Oh, and if you just want to enjoy the scenery, there's a lot of places to sit down and just stare into the distant.

My favorite place is the pine woods. You have to pay some money to enter here (Rp 5000.00) for conservation purpose which is worth it. The woods are clean, shady, and quiet with small sounds of nature in the distant.

In the woods you can take many photograph. Be creative as nature give you lot of object to play with. You can shoot the trees, the path, falling twig or pine fruit, play with shadow or just making a landscape shot. I literally explore everything here and it was fun!

In the end, I encourage all of you, busy people, to go here. An accessible, affordable, relaxing place to escape from reality a little while. Have fun!

P.S.: People say the best time here are during sunset and night where you can capture the city lights. Unfortunately, i haven't got the opportunity yet :(.